1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid ejection device having a liquid ejection head which ejects liquid.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 142450/2004 (Tokukai 2004-142450) discloses an inkjet recording apparatus which is a liquid ejection device having a maintenance unit provided with a blade (wiper), a wiper roller, and purge caps. The maintenance unit of the inkjet recording apparatus first covers nozzle faces (ejection faces) with the purge caps respectively, and then applies suction to nozzles to draw, from the nozzles, ink containing dust or bubbles, thickened ink, or the like. Then, the maintenance unit wipes off ink adhered to the nozzle faces with the wiper roller and the blade each abutting the ejection faces while the maintenance unit moves in one direction from a purge position to a withdrawal position.
However, the inkjet recording apparatus of the above publication may cause a problem such that the maintenance unit possibly moves in a direction deviating from the one direction within a plane parallel to the nozzle faces, during its movement in the one direction from the purge position to the withdrawal position. Along with this movement of the maintenance unit, the wiper unfortunately moves in the direction deviating from the one direction, which produces a portion of the ejection face which the wiper fails to abut. As a result, ink adhered to the portion of the ejection face which the wiper fails to abut is left without being wiped off. In addition, the movement of the wiper in a direction deviating from the one direction causes another problem such that a portion of the wiper wipes an ink different from the ink which should be wiped off by that portion if the wiper moves in the one direction. This causes mixing of inks in that portion of the wiper.
To wipe the whole ejection faces and prevent ink mixing despite the movement of the wiper in a direction deviating from the one direction, a wiper may be provided for each of the ejection faces, and each wiper may be designed to be wider than each ejection face in a direction perpendicular to the one direction (“perpendicular direction”). However, through downsizing of the apparatus, two adjacent ejection faces are disposed more closely to each other in recent years, with a smaller gap between the two ejection faces. In this circumstance, it is difficult to widen the width of each wiper in the perpendicular direction than that of each ejection face.